Joe Donahue

Vice President, News and Programming

Joe talks to people on the radio for a living. In addition to countless impressive human "gets" - he has talked to a lot of Muppets. Joe grew up in Philadelphia, has been on the area airwaves for more than 25 years and currently lives in Washington County, NY with his wife, Kelly, and their dog, Brady. And yes, he reads every single book.

Ways to Connect

Robert B. Parker’s famed detective, Spenser, lives on in the new novel, Lullaby, by Ace Atkins, who has taken over Parker’s franchise following his death in 2010. Ace Atkins joins us to talk about the pressure and honor of writing Parker's characters.

Aaron Sorkin, creator of The West Wing and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip as well as Golden Globe and Oscar winning writer for The Social Network is also the author of the play, The Farnsworth Invention, which details the invention of television. The Albany Civic Theatre is producing the play and we speak with director, Aaron Holbritter and by the actor playing the title character, Philo T. Farnsworth, Tom Templeton.

Author and journalist Tom Wilber join us to discuss his new book, Under the Surface: Fracking, Fortunes, and the Fate of the Marcellus Shale. He'll be at Oblong Books and Music in Rhinebeck on May 4th.

The new novel from Shalom Auslander includes among its characters, Anne Frank. In Hope: A Tragedy: A Novel, she survived the Holocaust and is discovered hiding in the attic of a house in rural New York State being rented by the book's main character.

Auslander is a best-selling memoirist, short story writer, and regular contributor to the public radio program This American Life. With "Hope: A Tragedy," Auslander says he set out to write a comic novel about genocide.

List:Masque of the Red Death by Bethany GriffinBilly Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben FountainThe Family Fang by Kevin WilsonThe Lifeboat by Charlotte RoganArcadia by Lauren GroffThe Last Werewolf by Glen DuncanSilver Sparrow by Tayari JonesThe Lola Quartet by Emily St. John Mandel

On Saturday and Sunday April 28 and 29, nine western MA pottery studios will celebrate the potter’s art and the advent of spring by opening their doors to the public for the Asparagus Valley Pottery Trail. Mary Barringer (Editor of The Studio Potter) tells us more.

Acclaimed biographer Anne Sebba offers the first full scale biography of Wallis Simpson, exploring the mind of one of the most glamorous and reviled figures of the 20th century--and one of the most talked about women of her generation. Anne Sebba will join us this week to discuss That Woman.

The List:Canada by Richard FordMidnight in Peking by Paul FrenchDead End Gene Pool by Wendy BurdenOklahoma City by Andrew Gumbel and Roger G. CharlesEisenhower by Jean Edward Smith Canada by Richard Ford

Eboo Patel, one of the leading voices for cultivating greater understanding and acceptance of diverse faith backgrounds on college campuses, will speak Tuesday, April 24, at 5:30 p.m. in Memorial Chapel at Union College. More information here.

In 1984, legendary Boston Celtics player M.L. Carr executed a steal and dunk in the NBA finals to seal the victory for the Boston Celtics against the Lakers, which eventually led them to a championship title that year. On April 27, Carr will be again be front and center as the keynote speaker for a fundraising gala benefitting the Catholic Schools of Pittsfield at “An Evening with the Stars.”

There will be a staged reading of War Stories, a performance about the effect of war based on writings from the Empire State College community on April 24 in the Proctors GE Theater in Schenectady, NY. Elaine Handley, Cindy Bates, and Claudia Hough join us to tell us more.